Too much water?

[mlager]

Hi there,

I am sitting here in front of my mash and realized I struck with way to much water, 2.0 qt/lb on a 14 pound grain bill. It's just a simple American IPA. This was a recipe error and i wasn't paying attention. I'll be bring 7.5 gallons into the kettle. This means that the greater portion of my wort will be from the mash, not the sparge. I guess my question is, what's the difference? I.E. What would be the different between:

Striking with 5 gallons and sparging to 7.5 in the kettle

Versus

Striking with 7 gallons and sparging to 7.5 in the kettle.

Should I expect lower efficiency? Higher / lower gravity? I'm just trying to figure out the ramifications of this, and also understand a bit more about water volumes in the mash.

 

[smagee]

I'd expect it to lower efficiency a bit, but so long as you reduce the sparge amount accordingly, gravity should be relatively unimpacted. Volume doesn't really have a negative impact on efficiency until you get to extreme levels, and even then only slightly, so your level is probably not going to cause much of a problem so long as you're aware of it and balance your final volumes accordingly. RDWHAHB .